A [No So] Distant Sound of Thunder

Summer has begun in Colorado. It ushered in the hail and rain season on Wednesday in a big way. My DH and I were happily tucked away in bed, snoozing. The distant sound of thunder and the patter of heavy rain had incorporated itself into my dreams. Just as the sound of a WWI vintage air raid siren began to wail, Ethan shook us awake. What was in my dream was suddenly bursting into a cacophony of the siren, the thunder nearly overhead and the drum of heavy rain pocked with the tinny sound of what I thought might have been hail. Mother Nature's show was capped off with a lightening show. Larr bolted upright and began to dress, ordering Ethan to turn on the computer as he put one leg into his pants. It was just after 11 p.m. They had to check the emergency weather information. Ethan darted out into the rain to save the garden in the backyard. The remnants of our garage door fail served as excellent covers for the favored hosta garden. The empty trash cans, the picnic table and benches, as well as all of our patio furniture were called into action. Amazingly, he was able to cover everything. I sat near the big picture window, still slightly sleepy and a bit dazed, watching the headlamp beam and silhouette of my son dart around in focused effort. I had not been thinking about the damage a storm like this could do, but how much I will miss him when he moves out. He is remarkable, that son of mine. at 11:45 there were tweets of a funnel cloud sighting less than a mile from our house. By that time I had place candles in useful places and tucked the cats securely, if unhappily, in the basement bathroom. We waited it out for a while. Once it began to lessen, the guys went over to the school to check it. Thankfully, Larr had prepared the building for the approaching rain and so all was safe.

The next morning I found my weary eyed self at my 7:30 a.m. meeting. The news stations predict that we were experiencing a once-in-a-100-years storm with its estimated 2 1/2" of rain in less than an hour. Down south they had hail the size of golf balls and quarters. The worst of it for us was a few wet close, the lose of about 3 hours of sleep and a garden that looked like a Salvador Dali painting.